Oh God, not this shit again. In a letter to the editor published today in The Washington Post, Joseph Anzalone of Washington says the ads for Fallout 3 displayed in D.C.'s Metro system are so disturbing they should be taken down.

"The people of our city do not need a daily reminder that Washington is a prime target for an attack. We do not need a daily reminder of what our worst fears look like."

The advertisements depict a post-apocalyptic District, with a caved-in Capitol dome, ruined Washington Monument and flags, and big mean enemy soldiers that are like scary'n stuff."Since any First Amendment objection would be irrelevant (the ads do not present a true viewpoint or political message and would therefore not be protected), there is no reason for these ads to be part of our daily panorama." No, jackass, but that's not even the point. The speech is protected by a fucking advertising contract. You know why they sell ads on a public transit system? It indirectly helps keep your fares low and more trains in service when you want them. But if you want WMATA to break that contract, I'll refer you to this case. And you know why that pisses me off? Not because of your amateur Constitutional scholarship, or your whingeing that a video game frightens you and therefore should frighten others. It's because if that contract is broken, WMATA is partially federally funded, and I'm not sure that my taxes wouldn't be paying some lawyer somewhere because of your teeth-sucking know-it-all lecture on what's appropriate and where. But the bottom line, you seem to be the only one offended by this. That's not enough of a mandate. Update: The more I think about this, the madder I get. What really pisses me off is this is an advertisement for a video game. Because someone chooses to see it as "a reminder of what our worst fears look like," doesn't make it that. It's the same culture-of-fear garbage retailed by our government to the mainstream media for the past seven years, and I'm sick and tired of it. Ruining Our Metro Ride [Washington Post via GamePolitics]